There have not been many grand slam champions in tennis from India. Tennis is still considered a game for the elite which makes grand slam wins a rarity for our country. But there have been few players who have been able to break this mould and made our nation proud on the international stage.
Below is the list of grand slam winners from India:
1. Leander Paes:
Leander Paes the most successful Indian on the circuit, has 14 Grand Slam titles to his name- 8 in the Men’s Doubles category and 6 in the Mixed Doubles. The Kolkata native who began his career as a singles player became the first tennis player from the country in 4 decades to bag an Olympic medal, when he bagged the bronze in the 1996 Atlanta Games. Soon after, he shifted his focus to doubles and his partnership with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi proved to be an envious combination. In 1998, the duo reached the semi-finals of 3 Slams and it was just a matter of time before they achieved success. The next year, the pair reached the finals of all 4 Grand Slams, and became only the 1st Indian doubles pair to win the French Open. Paes continued with his performances and in 2012, he achieved the feat of a Career Grand Slam (winner of all 4 slams) in men’s doubles by winning the Australian Open with Radek Stepanek.
2. Mahesh Bhupathi:
The Chennai born player held the baton for Indian tennis for a long period along with his long-time partner and co-patriot Leander Paes. Bhupathi has won 4 slams in doubles and 8 in mixed doubles category. He has also been the World Number 1 in doubles and managed to win 687 doubles and 115 mixed doubles matches in his 21 years long career. The 2nd most successful tennis player from India, Mahesh Bhupathi has 12 Majors to boast of and he is also the first Indian to bring home a Grand Slam, when he won the French Open Mixed Doubles Event in 1997 with Rika Hiraki.
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3. Sania Mirza:
Sania is the only Women tennis player in India ever to win a Grand Slam. She has so far won 6 Grand Slams in her career, 3 of which have come in doubles and 3 in mixed doubles. She is the lone Indian woman tennis player to make a name on the world stage reached a career high ranking of no. 27 in the world in 2007 and has singles wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Martina Hingis, Marion Bartoli, Victoria Azarenka amongst others to her name. However, a series of wrist injuries cut short her singles career as she shifted focus on the doubles arena, where she managed to achieve 3 Mixed Doubles Grand Slams. Mirza won her first Grand Slam in 2009, partnering Bhupathi in Melbourne. Her partnership with Bhupathi worked wonders again in 2012 at Roland Garros as the pair celebrated their second Grand Slam win together. The most recent addition to her tally came in the just concluded US Open, where she partnered Brazilian Bruno Soares to emerge victorious. She also became World No.1 in doubles and had a successful pairing with Martina Hingis.
4. Rohan Bopanna:
The 1980 born Bengaluru resident did the country proud when he won the 2017 French Open mixed doubles alongside Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada. Bopanna has also contested in 2 Grand Slam finals, which include 2010 US Open doubles and the 2018 Australian Open doubles. Bopanna has reached the career high ranking of World Number 3 in the doubles arena and won 377 doubles matches in his career so far. He won 2024 Australian Open Men's doubles title with his partner from Australia Matt Ebden on 27th January 2024, which is his 2nd career grand slam. With this title, he also became the Oldest man to win a grand slam title in open era!!
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